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KeyBank, a wholly owned subsidiary of Cleveland-based KeyCorp, today announced it is the first financial institution to offer MasterCard Worldwide's World Debit PayPass contactless card. The card features MasterCard's Savings Plus rewards program and is designed for consumers who spend $7,500 or more annually with their debit cards, according to Carl Stauffeneger, KeyBank senior consumer product manager. As economic conditions remain unsteady, KeyBank wants to give affluent customers who are using debit cards more "opportunities to let them get a little bit of that money back but still make that purchase that they need to make or want to make," Stauffeneger says. Cardholders receive premium-level access to the rewards program, a $29.95 annual value that the World Debit card includes at no charge. Program discounts range from 20% to 50% on selected products sold by participating merchants. Among the thousands of participating merchants are Best Buy Co. Inc., Home Depot Inc. and Office Depot Inc., a MasterCard spokesperson says. "One of the things we realized is that in extraordinary times, we think that extraordinary offers of value are required," Stauffeneger says. Enhanced debit card rewards become more valuable now that some credit card issuers are reducing the value of rewards, says Adil Moussa, an analyst with Boston-based Aite Group LLC. "It's even more important to have some kind of rewards to entice cardholders to use the card more and to gain some market share," he says. The bank expects to issue 25,000 World Debit cards by end of March and 60,000 during the next 12 months.
